Investors’ Perspectives - Matching investments with mission

A ‘unified investment strategy’ aligns a fund’s grantmaking programmes and financial investments with its mission to increase its social impact. How does this work for a medium-sized, private funding organization with a mission that is out of the mainstream? Dreilinden Gesellschaft für gemeinnütziges Privatkapital mbH had the chance to address this question with great freedom when we started in 2006.

Investors' perspectives - Connecting mission and investment policy

In March 2007, a Dutch TV programme revealed that the Dutch Cancer Foundation had some of its capital invested in cigarette companies and that quite a few pension funds were invested in companies manufacturing landmines and cluster bombs. These revelations spurred a heated debate in many quarters, including the boardroom of Fund 1818, about where the funds of charitable institutions and pension funds should be invested.

Symposium urges increase in ‘green’ investments

Despite the market turmoil, there is still over $500 billion in the endowments of US private foundations. In a time of constrained finances, it is important for foundations to leverage resources to achieve what they want to do rather than relying on grantmaking alone. Mission-related investing (MRI) is one way of doing this. This was the focus of a symposium organized by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors in New York last November.

SASIX offers new opportunities for South African investors

In response to the pressures faced by people and organizations in the developing world, SASIX, GreaterGood South Africa’s Social Investment Exchange, has created a new investment product that offers market-related financial returns on high-impact social development projects.

SASIX Financial is a joint venture of GreaterGood SA and Cadiz African Harvest Asset Management (CAHAM), which is a Financial Services Board approved and regulated financial services provider. At present, the new socially responsible investment product will be offered only to institutional investors such as pension funds and financial advisers through CAHAM, with plans for a 'retail' offering through the SASIX website in future. 

CAP to focus on uses of MRI and PRI for non-profit finances

A new body, the Center for Applied Philanthropy (CAP), has been launched under the auspices of The Philanthropic Initiative (TPI) in Boston with the aim of increasing the opportunities for NPOs to access funding for their programmes and working capital needs through programme and mission-related investments. CAP’s first initiative will be the launch of the Fund for Sustainability in conjunction with the Calvert Social Investment Foundation. The fund will specifically target working capital and programmatic needs among non-profits operating in the health and human services, arts and culture, environment and education sectors. It hopes to begin its initial round of funding during the first quarter of 2009.

‘First loss’ programme to help NPOs obtain debt finance

The Lemelson Foundation has introduced a programme to encourage socially minded investors to provide debt financing to non-profits. First Loss Capital injects a ‘cash cushion’ into a financing deal. Under the programme, Lemelson lends money to the fund, which in turn lends it to the non-profit or social enterprise.

Social Capital Markets Conference

Event Social Capital Markets Conference
Date 13-15 October
Venue San Francisco, USA Click here to read ...

Trustee's column: Why is MCI so hard for some foundations?

Sevdalina Rukanova’s article in the September issue of Alliance describes some of the problems foundations encounter in approaching mission connected investing – MCI. The idea of an investment that ‘targets a market rate of return and also helps a foundation achieve its mission’[1] makes unarguable good sense, so why don’t more foundations snap up this win-win opportunity? I think there are four issues here.

More effort needed on the supply side

In a recent article for the Guardian,[1] I suggested that if observers were to ‘peer beyond the wreckage of western financial systems’, they could ‘discern the outlines of the future’. I also suggested that the end of the period of ‘global capital markets’ and the ‘financial services revolution’ would usher in a new era of social business and social investment.

Investors’ perspectives: New opportunities for social investing

The precipitous fall in markets worldwide and fears of a global recession have created the most challenging economic situation in a generation. But as investors look closely at their portfolios, social investments can fill a niche that was previously unfilled.